Paroles

As the lukewarm hands of the gods
Came down and gently picked my adrenalin pearls
Placed them in their mouths
And rinsed all the fear out
Nourished them with their saliva

Now I’m all rejuvenated and rested
Now I’m all rejuvenated and rested

As if the healthiest pastime
Is being in life-threatening circumstances
And once again be reborn

All birthed and happy
All birthed and happy
All birthed and happy
All birthed and happy

Best way to start-a-new
Is to fail miserably
Fail at loving
And fail at giving
Fail at creating a flow
Then realign the whole
And kick into the starthole
And kick into the starthole
And kick into the starthole
To risk all is the end all and the beginning all
To risk all is the end all and the beginning all

Vidéo

Pages du Manuel Biophilia

Présentation de la chanson dans l’application Biophilia

With each new moon we complete a cycle and are offered renewal —to take risks, to connect with other people, to love, to give. the symbolism of the moon as the realm of imagination, melancholy, and regeneration is expressed in the moon song and app by musical patterns and visual images which wax and wane, and by lyrics about rebirth.

The moon app connects musical structure, human biorhythms, and cycles of the moon and tides : robs of pearls are strung out attached to a spinal chord whose fluid rises and falls with changing phases of the moon and the harp sequences.

The animation shows the changing shapes of and relationships between the harp melodies, allowing us to find connections between musical and natural cycles.

Analyse par Nikki Dibben

"It was really fun to program the Max patches and the Lemurs (algorythms and touch screen) in a similar way to how the moon waxes and wanes. Those kind of patterns are natural, and patterns we all know, but how do you put that into a song, especially electronic music that’s actually pretty rigid ?"
— Björk

In creating the song moon bjork took cycles in nature —the moon, tides, human biorhythms— and used these information for musical structures.

Björk’s main musical idea in moon is derived from the changing lunar ’phases’ which vary according to the how the sun, moon and earth are positioned relative to one another. The Portion of the moon we can see varies from the new moon (when the sun and the moon are on the same side of earth and the illuminated face of the moon can’t be seen) to full moon (when the sun and moon are opposite sides of the earth and the whole face is illuminated). The time between full moons is roughly 29 days, from which we derive calendar months.

The moon app highlights the effect of these cycles on other phenomena. The gravitational pull of the sun and moon, and the turning of the earth , influences the rise and fall of the oceans : the earth’s rotation relative to the moon means that the moon exerts more pull on the water on the side of the earth facing the moon than on the other side because the gravitational pull od the moon weakens the further is is from the earth.

Although there is no scientifically proven link, some people claim that there is a connection between lunar cycles and bodily rhythms : for example the menstrual cycle lasts roughly a month, approximating the lunar cycle and multiples of the tidal cycle, and the words ’menstruation’, ’month’ and ’moon’ share a common origin.

To convey ideas about cycles in the natural world through music, Björk and her studios engineer Damian Taylor used Max, a visual programming software for music which allows the user to create ’patches’ (Max programs) made by connecting building blocks (smaller programmes) on a computer screen.

In Biophilia Björk used the Lemur touchscreen interface as controller, having first used it in the Volta tour in anticipation of later technologies such as the iPad.

When creating moon Björk used a computer game controller to switch between different time signatures and material, allowing her to get away from conventional pop metros which tend to use multiples of two, and to use prime numbers instead —in this case the unusual metres of 17/8 and 5/8

The moon app takes the Max program used to create the song and translates it into a sequencer which can be controlled through the image of the moon, pearls and spinal fluid.

Change the phase of the moon and the tide changes, allowing water to spill over and ’play’ more or fewer of the pearls, each of which can be adjusted to play a different note from the pitch collection used in the song.

The relationship between lunar and tidal cycles and of the musical material in moon can be heard in the melodic contours —the way the tunes rise and fall in pitch. Melodic contour has often been used by computers to represent shapes ad movements in the natural world : an analogy between pitch height and there spatial dimension of height means that rising and falling contours ca be heard as the rise and fall of real-world phenomena such as waves.

The moon animation makes this relationships more explicit by representing notes in terms of their pitch height.

The harp part consists of roof different types of material with distinct melodic contours and metres : the two harp voices descend together (parallel motion), move in contrary motion (one descends then ascends while the other ascends then descends), are flat (strumming on a single pitch collection), and ascend in parallel motion.

The succession of these different sequences in different orders is loosely analogous to the changing phases of the moon. The outro of the track highlights this close relationship between words, images and sound : the lyrics "the end of all and the beginning of all" coincide with a return of the same descending sequence that started the track, above which the voice undulates, encapsulating the analogy between melodic contours and continuous cycles.

The way the vocal and harp melodies repeat but seem to start in different places rather than begin together on each new cycle represents the unending character of cyclic phenomena.

In this way musical structures represent rhythmic cycles in the natural world —a sonic embodiment of the idea of the moon as a symbol of renewal.